Point-of-Care Diagnostics in Equine Practice

Point-of-care testing (POCT) refers to benchtop diagnostic modalities that have been translated into portable and easy-to-use formats suitable for patient-side use. Recent advances in diagnostic technology have allowed the development of a growing collection of POCT assays available to equine practitioners. Advantages include rapid results that reduce initial guesswork and promote diagnosis-targeted patient care, which may ultimately provide better clinical outcomes. Small handheld devices comprise most POCT technologies, providing qualitative or quantitative determination of an increasing range of analytes, including critical care analyzers and, more recently, hematology and immunology analyzers. This article discusses commercially available equine POCT.